This study identifies and divides the analyzed cities into 10 types of cities, according to the particularities and potentialities of their real estate market, among them the Big Seven, Contenders, Innovators, Lifestyle, Influencers, Megahubs, Enterprises, Powerhouses, Hybrids and National Growth Engines.
Madrid integrates the Contenders, a group of 10 cities that, according to the study, "have acquired many or most of the assets of the top cities: the gateway connectivity to their national and continental economies, the effective metropolitan scale and market size, the trust of global capital, the talent pool and the multiple clustered specializations”.
In this group, there’s the highest growth in real estate investment in the last decade, cities that have also recorded some of the largest office leases since 2000. In Madrid, it’s expected rents to increase 3.6% by 2021, one of the highest growth expected in Europe.
Shanghai is the most dynamic city in the group, where investment volumes have increased tenfold since 2006.
Barcelona is part of the Influencers group, cities that stand out for their role in welcoming global institutions, tourism or commerce. "These cities have permanent roles or are default locations for facilitating intergovernmental, legal or trade-related decisions. This means these cities host clusters in the diplomatic, security, media and higher education sectors and other adjacent industries", explains the study.
The strength of these cities derives from good political or geographical events/accidents. These are cities with some of the world's most stable real estate markets, registering the lowest volatility in the office area since 2000 among all 10 city groups analyzed by JLL, despite attracting fewer foreign investors than Innovators or Lifestyle. Frankfurt leads these markets.
Barcelona is also considered one of the "New World Cities”, as an ‘Influencer’ through its position as a cultural hub, which projects its strong global brand and values outwards. Equally, it is also recognised for its exceptional lifestyle and is building its status as a ‘smart city’ and ‘innovation hub’.
London, New York, Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong e Seoul integrate the group of Big Seven, which "uniquely combine scale, global reach, quality and influence. This makes them the default locations for cross-border investors and corporates, highly desirable for national and international talent, and attractive for purposes of trade, conventions, education and tourism".
However, the study highlights that "these cities are experiencing most sharply the challenges of growth management and are among those highly affected by external geopolitical uncertainties".